Today is May 12, 2018. Exactly 11 years ago, Karachi, the economic hub and financial capital of Pakistan, witnessed unprecedented bloodshed in its history. It was on this day that the building that houses this newspaper and Aaj Television came under a gun attack that lasted for several hours. This day, therefore, constitutes a grim reminder of a profoundly tragic happening in the history of Pakistan. It was on this day over a decade ago that people were maimed and killed by "unidentified" gunmen across the length and breadth of this city of teeming millions in large numbers. While hospitals were full of dead and the injured, the city had been turned into a ghost town, giving an impression of a huge neighbourhood visited by a calamity of a higher magnitude.
Unfortunately, however, a violent incident in Karachi's Hakim Mohammad Said ground on Monday gave birth to serious doubts about our ability to remember the past; it has also raised a question whether or not peace, however relative, that has been obtaining in the megapolis since 2013 mainly because of untiring efforts of Sindh Rangers, will hold till the 2018 general election and beyond. The two mainstream national parties-Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have blamed each other for triggering violence on city's recently-renovated thoroughfare, University Road, where this ground, which is named after highly revered Hakim Said who fell victim to violence in the late 1990s, is located. At least three cars were set on fire during clashes and numerous cars and motorcycles parked inside the ground were vandalized. According to media reports, PPP and PTI workers came face to face at Hakim Said Ground where the latter had been organising an election-related camp for about a week. As both parties wanted to hold rallies on May 12 at this ground, the war of words quickly escalated to violence, with several people injured in the scuffles that ensued. In his earlier tweet, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari claimed that his party workers were pelted with stones by PTI supporters. "Our trucks were set on fire. PTI leader's guards fired weapons. More than 20 received considerable injuries." Luckily, sanity gained ground on both sides. This tense PPP-PTI standoff eventually came to an end when Bilawal invited PTI chief to hold his party's rally at Hakim Said Ground and a local PPP leader announced that his party would now organise its gathering at Bagh-e-Jinnah on May 12. PTI too decided to lower tensions and announced that it would hold its rally on May 12 at some other place - Sunday Bazaar ground adjacent to Aladin Park off Rashid Minhas Road. It is heartening to note that sanity has prevailed in both the camps. It is however quite obvious that both PPP and PTI have been trying harder to cash in on the misery of MQM-P in the general elections. Little do they know that the repeats of the Hakim Said Ground could lead to giving a timely boost to a beleaguered MQM-P's fledgling electoral prospects.
Be that as it may, Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana had said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. This day therefore must not be marked by even a minor incident of violence.
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